


Boss Rush

by Brackets_002, Dark_Xenon



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Game)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-27
Updated: 2017-12-02
Packaged: 2018-12-20 11:58:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11920440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brackets_002/pseuds/Brackets_002, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dark_Xenon/pseuds/Dark_Xenon
Summary: A collection of oneshots pertaining to the various bosses of Hollow Knight.





	1. False Knight

It was quiet as they walked into the room. Specks of orange liquid still clung to their nail- a reminder of the husks they’d cut down on the path of their descent. They’d followed the map they bought from the cartographer they met earlier in the crossroads... they really should learn their name, should their paths cross again. The map consisted of a path with a wide, empty room at the end, the large mask drawn on it left them with a sense of foreboding.

So far, it appeared to be empty. They walked down to the other side and saw a gate blocking the path forward. Turning around, they noticed some elevated platforms they could take to explore the rest of the room. Jumping up, they managed to get to the second floor, where another large chamber lay. It was not unlike the one on the lower floor, but this one had a few meandering husks within it.

Stepping forward, they avoided garnering the attention of the first husk. The second noticed them after they passed and managed to strike them once, only to be swiftly cut down afterwards. Pausing for a moment, they focused their energy to tend to the minor injury. The Knight decided not to take any chances as they approached the third husk in the room and swiftly ended its afterlife.

As they approached the exit to the chamber, the gate closed in front of them with a sharp noise. Turning quickly, they saw the gate they’d entered from close as well. Soon after, something fell into the chamber. 

A large suit of armor- nearly twice as big as the husk guards they had seen outside -landed on its feet, completely crushing the remaining husk in the room, killing it instantly as it held its mace in a fashion that showed it was prepared to battle.This wasn’t some mere husk like all the enemies they had faced up until now, this was an enemy who most likely knew how to fight. 

They watched the large knight lift up its mace and swing it down towards them. Quickly moving back, they avoided the attack and went in to land some hits of their own while the knight prepared another swing of the undoubtedly heavy weapon.Before the knight was prepared to swing its mace again, they jumped back out of its range. However, the knight leapt into the air much higher than it seemed possible. They knew there wasn’t enough space between them, the knight, and the wall to avoid this attack, so they chose to run underneath it. Somehow, their plan succeeded, and with a few sharp swings they struck at the suit of armor as many times as they could. After a few more hits, the knight fell to the ground. 

Was the fight over, they wondered, as they approached the fallen armor. Before they could recover from their surprise, the mask of the suit split open to reveal the large, white, bulbous head of a maggot. Confused, but nonetheless realizing this was the true face of the so called knight, they swung their nail at their opponent, causing blood to spill out as they slashed. It was becoming apparent that this could not have been the true owner of this armor. Instead, it was another bug who had stolen it!

Before they could finish off the creature it managed to strike them with the mace. They were knocked back as the mask closed again, hiding the bearer of the armor safely from view once again as it stood back up.That swing had hurt them and now their mask was cracked in several places. Despite their wounds, they would not falter. The False Knight in front of them would not be the thing to stop them from accomplishing their goal. 

They watched as the fraud of a warrior stood back up and began to swing their mace in an aggressive manner Each time the weapon struck the ground, it caused miniature quakes in the room, causing pieces of the ceiling to fall from above.

Luckily, they managed to focus their soul and repair some of the fractures in their mask before any of the debris hit them. As they dashed in again, the False Knight’s tantrum seemed to end. They struck wildly at the legs of the armor in hopes of causing it to fall again. After a few swings, they saw their opponent leap into the air again. They prepared to run underneath it again, but for some reason the False Knight had leapt backwards instead.

They stopped their charge just outside of the range of the mace, and were confused when the maggot began preparing another swing. 

‘ _ Perhaps they don’t realize I’m outside their range? _ ’ They were caught off guard when the False Knight struck the ground- a shockwave quickly forming from where the mace hit the earth. The resulting tremors engulfed them and knocked them to the floor.

They tried to pick themselves back up despite their newfound injuries. They were near helpless as the suit of armor lumbered towards them. It wasn’t visible, but they could sense the smugness coming off the maggot inside. They watched as the False Knight lifted the mace above their head in preparation to strike and quickly rolled to the side, narrowly dodging it as the mace became embedded in the ground.

Getting back onto their feet was difficult. They hadn’t felt this kind of pain before, but they pressed on. After a few strikes at the legs of the armor with their nail, they managed to cause it to give out and crumple to the floor again. 

The force of the fall caused the mask to open up and reveal the maggots face once more, fear evident on its face. This time, they showed no mercy as the old nail was used to strike them again and again. Remembering their opponents previous movements they jumped back before the maggot recovered, and managed to avoid the swing of the mace. They watched from a safe distance as the False Knight threw another tantrum- striking the floor over and over with their weapon -and carefully dodged any of the rocks that fell near them.

After it finished its rampage, the maggot leapt toward them while they moved back to avoid it. However, before they could move to attack again, the False Knight’s mace struck the earth, causing the floor of the chamber to give out beneath their opponent. As the maggot in armor fell down into the room below, they heard a low cry of surprise and a subsequent  _ thud _ .

They stopped to let the realization set in. Then, after a moment, they focused all of their soul in order to repair their mask; the cracks slowly filling up with light as the missing sections regrew themselves. After they were completely depleted of soul, they hopped down the hole the False Knight had created. When they landed, they looked up and saw the suit of armor. It had been disfigured from the fall, and the mask that used to cover it had broken apart to lay on the ground. Still within the armor was the maggot’s head, which stared at them in fear.

“No, no! Please don’t kill me!” The maggot cried out, tears trailing down its face. "I wanted it... the strength to protect others,” it said between sobs. “When I saw the Knight... sleeping... safe in his big armored shell... It wasn't madness that drove me to it... I just wanted it...” They quickly realized that this maggot wasn’t infected like all the other creates in the crossroads. Turning around, they soon saw two other maggots, watching from the shadows of the room. “But... in the end? If strength can not save you, then what can...?" the False Knight finished their rushed tirade and ceased their struggling.

They looked at the maggots face, it seemed they had accepted their fate. They walked toward the fallen armor with their nail. Thrusting it forward, they lodged it in a piece of the armor by the maggots head and used the nail to pry the armor open enough for the maggot to fall out. 

“W-what!” they cried out in surprise, obviously not expecting to be spared by the one they had just attempted to kill. They turned toward the knight that had been their opponent. 

“You... aren’t going to finish me off...?” They asked in surprise. “Thank you... please, take this...” They  pulled a red stone out of the ruined armor and handed it to them.

Upon closer inspection they found the crest of Hallownest’s capital engraved upon it. They tucked the trinket away beneath their cloak as they walked toward the formerly closed gate. The maggot watched on from their spot beside the armor, the other maggots rushing over to them.

“Brother! Are you alright? Come, we must find something for your wounds!” Their siblings cried out as they helped them climb back up to their home. This, of course, was all seen by the knight, as they took one last glance at the remains of the chamber.

As they looked ahead, they wondered what else could be hidden past this incredible foe.


	2. Hornet

The Knight paused at the entrance of the room and surveyed the scene before them. There were two figures, one of them was the bug with the red cloaked they had seen throughout Greenpath. The other was a small masked bug not unlike themself.

They quickly took note of the nail sticking out of its chest and the obvious fractures on their mask. They had no doubt that they were no longer among the living. They hopped down into the room, but before they could do anything else they leaped to the side to avoid a swift slash of the cloaked bug’s weapon.

“Come no closer, ghost. I’ve seen you, creeping through the undergrowth, stalking me. This old kingdom... A terrible thing awakens. I can smell it in the air... I know what you are. I know what you’d try to do. I can’t allow it,” she said. The wielder of the needle jumped back and let out a war cry as she threw her needle towards them. They managed to jump over it and watched as the weapon embedded itself within the foliage behind them.

The ghost looked back towards the cloaked bug as she spoke. “I suppose it is only fair that you know the name of the one who will strike you down... I am Hornet, Guardian of Hallownest, and these moments will be your last.” She followed up by pulling her arm back, the needle yanking itself out of the undergrowth and slamming into the Ghost from behind, knocking them to the ground.

They quickly climbed back to their feet and brought up their nail just in time to block another swing from Hornet’s weapon. Using the moment she took to shift the needle to the side, they landed a hit on her. The force of the blow caused Hornet to jump back to avoid any follow up attacks. Ghost used this time to focus, their mask glowing as it began to repair itself. They were unable to fully repair it though, as Hornet quickly went back on the offensive.

She jumped high into the air and quickly fell back down, aiming her needle toward the ghost’s body. They barely managed to roll out of the way in time as she plunged her needle into the earth. Ghost quickly took advantage of this and swiped at Hornet, getting three attacks off as she grunted and finally yanked the needle out and jumped away.

Ghost- not wanting to give her any respite -rushed forward to continue their attack. They were caught off guard when Hornet stopped in midair, but paid for their cockiness when thread started whipping all around her. They were slashed over and over by an innumerable amount of  threads as their cloak was reduced to pieces and their mask began falling apart.

When she finally stopped her attack, both combatants fell to their knees. They both knew that whoever landed the next attack would be the victor of this dispute. Unfortunately for them, Hornet was the only one able to stand back up. The ghost watched as she tensed before pushing off of the ground and flying towards them. Her needle pointed forward, aiming to pierce straight through them.

The ghost reached deep inside of themselves, grasping for the last vestiges of soul they had, and launched it all at once. The vengeful spirit shot out of them like a 

bullet, slamming directly into Hornet’s mask and knocking her back into the gate behind her.

At this point, Hornet knew had lost. She slowly stood back up, and tossed her needle out of the arena, swinging away in defeat. The ghost watched on in anticipation, but they didn’t allow themselves to relax until it was clear she was gone.

Looking around, they remembered the bug that had been felled before them and noticed that it had fallen over at some point during the confrontation. Stepping closer, they decided they could make use of its cloak, Seeing as their own was no longer much beyond a scarf. After they had finished replacing their cloak with the new one, they were mentally assaulted by multiple voices.

‘ _Would it seek to break the seals?_ ’

‘ _They cannot be undone._ ’

‘ _They must be undone._ ’

‘ _Let us sleep little shadow._ ’

‘ _Return to your darkness._ ’

‘ _Allow us our peace._ ’

When the voices stopped, they shuddered. The combined effects of the harrowing fight and subsequent mental assault took their toll, and the ghost fell to the ground as they were claimed by sleep...


	3. Broken Vessel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a special guest chapter written by my good friend Brackets_002!
> 
> Sorry about the lack of content for this fic, I'll try to get back to updating this as soon as I can!

They had seen dead Vessels before. One had lain in the cavern where Hornet had confronted them and named them Ghost. A few bodyless masks were among the walls of old carapaces and shells in the Shaman’s home. They had memories--distant, vague memories; images they could barely make out through the cold and the wind of the void beyond the howling cliffs, but memories nonetheless--of walking on a mountain of broken masks, dead and dying siblings plummeting from above to join those already filling the Abyss. Ghost had gradually realized in their travels that they were one of the last ( _ the _ last?) Vessels still alive, and though they had ripped the next enemy they had found to shreds over it, it wasn’t a groundbreaking revelation, and they felt they would be able to endure it, more or less.

So when, in the ancient basin at the bottom of the world, they stepped through an open gate and saw the corpse of another of their siblings slumped over and still, a prominent hole in the back of its mask, they only stopped for a few minutes to stare silently, feeling the weight of one more settle on their back. They wished they had something to adorn the corpse with, if for no other reason than to say  _ I love you. _ Mark of Pride, maybe? No, sentiment was one thing, but they couldn’t give up something so useful in a world like this. So instead Ghost simply crossed the room, touching an intact horn affectionately as they passed, and drew their nail to hack at the orange pustules that blocked the door on the other side.

The sound of a closing gate echoed from behind them, pausing their work and making them turn to find themselves trapped. But the ground was already rumbling. As Ghost adjusted their footing and looked down Lightseeds started to emerge from cracks in the floor and skitter across the stone--not chaotically fleeing as they had before, but converging on the dead Vessel. When the first drew near enough it hopped up and burrowed into the hole in its mask with a wet sound.

Instantly Ghost dashed forward, their nail sweeping in a wide arc low over the ground. The blade was stained sickly, glowing orange in one swipe, but the Lightseeds kept coming; no matter how many Ghost killed a dozen more escaped each swing of the nail and leapt into their sibling’s head. Anger and horror fought for dominance in Ghost as they hatefully, desperately swung at the orange creatures, but horror easily eclipsed rage as the flow of Lifeseeds slowed, then stopped, and they turned to look at the body. So many had gotten past and merged together in the break that a single, bright orange cyst bulged as large as the head, pressing into the horns on the other side of the mask, sloshing and threatening to spill over completely as the final Lifeseeds burrowed into the mask. Then the broken vessel lifted its head and  _ screamed _ .

Ghost took shaky, sharp steps back as the vessel wavered on its feet and looked at them with eye sockets full of swollen orange. Even its cloak was animated, crawling like tentacles, and it leapt at Ghost with a jump that carried it across half the room. Its foot collided with Ghost’s mask, cracking it, as they otherwise dodged the attack, almost losing grip of their nail. Their  _ sibling _ \--it had to recognize them, and maybe it even  _ did _ because it stopped before attacking again and trembled on the spot, stiff, as if willing itself with all its might  _ not  _ to move, but then in one sharp motion it ripped the old nail off its back and swung it at Ghost in an enormous arc. An explosion of pain shot up Ghost’s body as the point of the nail tore at their chest; the nail was far larger than they had thought. They tumbled backwards, their chest burning and bleeding, and the broken vessel took three more flailing swings over its head as a panicking Ghost ran as fast as they could to the furthest corner of the room. They had Soul from the Mawleks. They tried to concentrate, to Focus, and could feel the white energy gathering at the cracks in their mask and the slash across their chest. Quick Focus ensured that the Soul danced faster than it wanted to, wounds growing closed at a prodigious speed, but it took a moment to even begin to concentrate.

How long had their sibling been down here, shattered and possessed and burning from light? Had the parasites killed it, burrowing into its body and mask and seizing control as it had watched, growing weaker by the second? Had the Lightseeds found it dead and defiled their sibling’s broken body? How many times had they pulled this vessel to its feet as though by puppet strings? How many had they killed using this insult?

Ghost was so consumed by this, they almost failed to notice the infected balloon appearing and drifting towards them. Their wounds weren’t healed nearly to their satisfaction, but they stopped the healing spell and their nail tore the balloon in twain viciously. Ghost focused on the broken vessel again, just in time to dash out of the way as it jumped at them again. They whirled and slashed out with their own, channelled nail in the same motion.

_ STOP IT! _ If there had been a voice to say it, the scream would have rebounded off the walls and shaken the earth. The nail sliced through the cyst in the vessel’s head, splattering already-dead orange across them both and the floor, but the wound had sealed shut before the pus had hit the ground.  _ LEAVE THE BODY ALONE! IT ISN’T YOURS TO-- _ they ducked as the body jumped and dashed overhead, slashing at air with that absurdly long nail, but they couldn’t help but notice the struggle the body had undergone to even attempt the wild attack. Even beyond the corpselike stiffness, the vessel was fighting itself as much as it was them. But then it leapt again, high above, and slammed its nail into the ground with blinding speed as though it, too, had the Desolate Dive. The difference was that instead of a burst of Soul, four orange pustules burst outward from the point of impact and began to rise to the ceiling as if floating in water; Ghost paused between the path of two of them as they drifted past. But those didn’t give them room to jump as the broken vessel fought itself, then lunged forward again, and they were forced to parry as well as they could against the strength the infection filled the body with. They jerked back under the weight and cast Vengeful Spirit, knocking the body away in a blast of Soul, before attempting to finish their earlier Focus in the second this gave them.

Again, they were interrupted, this time as the broken vessel leapt over them and landed in the very center of the room. Shaking its head back and forth as Ghost hastily dashed away, it began to emit an infectious cloud, large globules flying off of its main cyst and splattering about the room. Ghost dodged one, was blindsided by another and felt the side of their mask crack from its impact, but then leapt and dashed over the vessel’s head, slashing downwards through the gigantic pustule. Was a Lightseed flung away by the attack? Ghost didn’t know for sure, and if they had, the host didn’t seem to notice or care. Its right hand slowly, painfully reached out of the cloak and grabbed the hilt of its nail. Ghost felt their upper arm torn open, but parried the next wild slash and hit the vessel’s mask with a two-handed strike.

It was knocked away, globs of orange splashing across the stone below it, and lay bent over backwards with its head nearly to the ground. Ghost swatted an infected balloon out of the air, feeling the warmth of Soul creep up their nail at the attack, and attempted to seal their cracked mask. A drop of pitch-black Void seeped from the crack before the pale light of Soul danced around the edges of the wound and gradually shrank it to nothing. The bleeding gashes in their arm and chest, too, began to heal under the care of focused Soul, the tip of Ghost’s nail touching the ground as they concentrated. They watched the body before them struggling to lift the head, heavy with infection, off the ground, the pustule sloshing and those bulging eye sockets tightening as the Lightseeds within pulled like puppeteers. The sight interrupted Ghost’s Focus again, anger and nauseous shock breaking concentration and lifting their nail of its own accord.

They leapt. But the Lightseeds managed to wrench their host to its feet and used the tendrils of the cloak to leap as well, smashing headlong into Ghost in midair. Ghost slashed at the cyst, splattering another part of it across the room, but they landed together awkwardly and the broken vessel shoved Ghost away with one arm, drawing its own long nail with the other.

The Vessels continued like this for some time, locked in a room and mortal battle. The broken one splattered infection across the floor and flailed wildly with its nail, while the one that still lived slashed whenever they could take the chance, dodging attacks and healing as far as they dared. But there was a growing imbalance; the stronger combatant was a collection of single-celled organisms guiding the hand of a puppet, while its target was a living vessel who had known little but combat for almost every second of their life. Gradually the tide tilted towards Ghost, who hacked at the blob of infection with experience and grief and the rage of a vengeful sibling guiding their arm. The nail that had been their companion for as long as they could remember served them well now as they slowly cut away the infection. All rationality had left them in the face of this  _ murder, _ this  _ insult _ ; those eye sockets were a mockery of them both and those attacks were an embodiment of everything they had been created to stop and the Lifeseeds probably didn’t even know why their newest target fought back with such malice. Ghost felt Void running down their mask and glowing orange dripped off of their blade. Every inch of their body ached. Perhaps later they would realize that it wasn’t a physical ache.

At last, they blasted the broken vessel--now more fitting that description than ever; no horns remained; one black arm and most of its cloak lay severed on the ground somewhere--into the corner with a Vengeful Spirit and ran the body through one of its eye sockets. Somewhere inside the head something broke. From the fallen-back position they had landed in they started to shake, the orange fluid of dead infection spraying across the room. Ghost darted back, shielding their eyes, until they heard the noise stop. Lowering their arm, their nail still in the other hand, they watched the cyst finally break and the infection explode from the body as it fell forward in a heap. Satisfied, relaxing, Ghost stepped out of their stance--

The broken vessel looked up at Ghost, and reached out a hand towards them.

The channelled nail dropped to the ground, handle clanging on the stone. Ghost sprinted for the body of their sibling, dashing to the vessel’s side and dropping to their knees even as the arm fell and the empty eyes of the other vessel turned lifeless. Hurriedly, silently begging, they turned it over and pulled up its face to look properly at it. It lay limp beneath them, its remaining arm splayed off to the side and its body twisted by infection and torn apart by a blade. Ghost shook it--Myla’s death had been catastrophic, but  _ this, not this _ \--shook it harder, and then all but collapsed, cradling the shattered mask in their arms and more alone than they had ever been.

_ Why had they severed its arm? _ They couldn’t remember. What had possessed Ghost to mutilate their sibling as far as they had, what kind of anger had turned them on their own? Ghost begged the memory of the king for a voice, a mouth, the means to scream. They would have wailed until the stone cracked, screamed until the echoes brought this cavern down on them, shrieked loud enough that the whole kingdom would have taken pity, collapsed and buried them, the sibling who had died and the sibling who had deserved it. They wanted to cry until the voice destroyed itself from the strain, and even longer, until this imaginary throat bled Void and choked them to death.

But instead they could only tremble like an earthquake, and rock back and forth as though cradling an infant. The dead eyes of the broken vessel stared up at them, asking why--granting Ghost forgiveness--damning them--none of it; there was nothing in those eyes but the Void they were made of. Ghost continued to rock the corpse, and though they didn’t have that voice, the only song they knew played in their head, the only funeral they could give:

_...Oh, bury my m-mother...pale...and slight, _

_ Bury...no… _

_ Bury m-my...my siblings...two by two... _


End file.
